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Jets Re-Sign Joel Armia, Adam Lowry

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The Winnipeg Jets announced via Twitter that they have re-signed forwards Joel Armia and Adam Lowry, both to two year deals. Armia will earn $925K per year, while Lowry will command $1.125MM.

Lowry, 22, was drafted in the third round, 67th overall by Winnipeg. He scored seven goals, and 10 assists last year in 71 games. In his NHL career he has 18 goals, 22 assists, in 154 games.

Armia, 23, was drafted 16th overall in the first round by Buffalo before being traded to the Jets as part of the Evander Kane deal. The Finn was a high scorer in Sweden before coming to North America, where he scored four goals, and six assists in 43 games for the Jets last year.

Red Wings Re-Sign Luke Glendening

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The Detroit Red Wings announced via Twitter and their website that they’ve re-signed forward Luke Glendening to a four year contract. GeneralFanager reports on Twitter that the deal is worth $1.8MM a year. Glendening had one year left on his contract, so this contract starts in 2017-18, and will expire in July of 2021.

Glendening, who is 27 years old, was undrafted, but began his NHL career with the Red Wings, played at the University of Michigan and was raised in Grand Rapids. He scored eight goals, and added 13 assists last year, having played 81 games for the Red Wings. In his NHL career, he has scored 21 goals, and 25 assists in 219 games.

Glendening, a right-hand shot, and natural center, adds to a growing list of forwards for the Red Wings. They now have 18 under contract. The large number will be easily pared down, as Johan Franzen will likely spend the season on long-term injured reserve, and Joe Vitale, acquired in the Pavel Datsyuk trade, might join him.

After that, the Red Wings have many forwards who can be sent to the Grand Rapids Griffins without much panic, including Glendening, Teemu Pulkkinen, Andreas Athanasiou, Anthony Mantha, and Tomas Jurco.  Mantha and Athanasiou would not require waivers before being demoted, and both played part-time in the NHL last year.

League-Wide Notes: Haggarty, Vegas, Martin, Vesey

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Harley Haggarty writes in the Player’s Tribune today about his role as a fighter in junior and the AHL. His knowledge of his expiration date is fairly interesting, and generally speaking, the difference between this and what players in the big leagues say, NHL players tend to have more optimistic views and tend to want more to stay in the NHL for longer, is interesting in terms of analyzing players who choose to keep playing in the AHL once they realize they won’t be NHL stars.

More links from around the league:

  • Gord Miller of TSN reports on Twitter that the Las Vegas NHL franchise will be named the Knights.
  • Sportsnet’s Eric Engels writes today about the PK Subban trade, saying at one point that Mat Pfeffer, an analytics consultant for the Canadiens, likely lost his job because of his opposition to the trade.
  • Draglikepull at  The Leafs Nation writes statistically about the Matt Martin signing. His analysis seems to suggest that Martin struggles to create offense.
  • Todd Cordell of HockeyBuzz reports that the Devils stand a shot at signing Harvard forward Jimmy Vesey. Cordell reports that they’re on Vesey’s short list. Vesey, who was drafted by Nashville, had 24 goals and 22 assists playing for Harvard last year.

Snapshots: Trades, Cullen, Hall, Callahan

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USA Today’s Kevin Allen writes today on eight teams he expects to be active in the trade market going forward, the Anaheim Ducks, Boston Bruins, Colorado Avalanche, Detroit Red Wings, Edmonton Oilers, Minnesota Wild, New York Rangers, and St. Louis Blues. While there are still several useful players left on the unrestricted free agent market, Allen suggests several teams are looking to either move out salary, or upgrade their teams via trade.

Allen suggests the Blues and Ducks would both like to add forwards, and could dangle defensemen to get it done. The Ducks have long been rumored to be willing to move Cam Fowler in exchange for forward help, and the Blues may be willing to move Kevin Shattenkirk, who is eligible for unrestricted free agency in 2017. All of the Oilers, Bruins, and Red Wings are said to be seeking defensemen, and the Oilers in particular have excess forwards who could be moved. Allen also suggessts defensemen Tyson Barrie of the Avalanche, Matt Dumba of the Wild, and Kevin Klein and Marc Staal of the Rangers may be shopped this summer. In the case of Klein and Staal, it would likely be in an effort to clear cap space, and it’s also possible the Rangers move forward Rick Nash, but his $7.8MM cap hit may make that difficult.

Elsewhere around the league:

  • Recently acquired Devils forward Taylor Hall will switch from wearing the number four to the number nine, reports Scott Lewis at Sportsnet.ca. Hall had previously worn four for his entire NHL career, but it’s retired in New Jersey for former Devils’ captain Scott Stevens. There had been a previous controversy when Hall was given the number four in Edmonton, which had been retired for former defenseman and then Oilers’ President of Hockey Operations Kevin Lowe.
  • Puck Daddy’s Josh Cooper reports today on deliberations over who will replace injured Lightning forward Ryan Callahan on the American team for the World Cup of Hockey. Cooper lists Tampa Bay’s Tyler Johnson, Buffalo’s Kyle Okposo, Pittsburgh’s Phil Kessel, and New Jersey’s Kyle Palmieri as potential replacements.
  • Penguins’ GM Jim Rutherford was quoted on Twitter by the Pittsburgh Tribune’s Bill West, saying they do have an offer out on center Matt Cullen, but suggests the money is less than his play last year would justify. Cullen, who turns 40 in November, had 16 goals and 16 assists in 82 games last year, helping the Penguins win the Stanley Cup.

Red Wings Re-Sign Teemu Pulkkinen To One Year Contract

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The Detroit Red Wings announced today via Twitter and their website the re-signing of 24-year-old right winger Teemu Pulkkinen. Helene St. James of the Detroit Free Press reports on Twitter that the deal is worth $812k.

Pulkkinen, a fourth round pick of the Red Wings in 2010, played 36 games for the Red Wings last year, scoring six goals, and adding six assists. In his career, Pulkkinen has played 70 NHL games, scoring 11 goals, and nine assists. Pulkkinen would have to be waived to be sent to the Grand Rapids Griffins, Detroit’s AHL affiliate, so it’s more likely he’ll be given an NHL spot. Other right wingers on the Red Wings include Tomas Jurco, Gustav Nyquist, and Johan Franzen, though the latter missed all but two games last year with concussion issues.

The Red Wings now have a little under $3.3MM in cap space, still needing to re-sign two restricted free agents, defenseman Danny DeKeyser, and goaltender Petr Mrazek. This will be somewhat difficult to pull off, given they combined to make almost that last year, but Detroit also has eighteen forwards under contract, giving them a lot of movable assets, and given the likelihood of Johan Franzen spending another season on the long-term injured reserve, they shouldn’t have too many problems unless they plan on adding more salary via trade.

Penguins Re-Sign Justin Schultz To 1-Year, $1.4MM Deal

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The Pittsburgh Penguins announced via Twitter and their website the re-signing unrestricted free agent defenseman Justin Schultz to a 1-year contract worth $1.4MM. Schultz, who was acquired from the Edmonton Oilers at the trade deadline in exchange for a third round pick in 2016, became an unrestricted free agent when the Penguins declined to give him a qualifying offer, which would have been around $3.9MM.

Schultz played 18 regular season games for the Penguins, scoring one goal, and adding seven assists. In his first shot at playoff action, he played 15 games, picking up four assists, and was a scratch for nine of the team’s first twelve playoff games. Before joining the Penguins, Schultz played 248 games for Edmonton, scoring 28 goals, and adding 73 assists, averaging 22 minutes a game.

Originally drafted by the Anaheim Ducks, Schultz starred at the University of Wisconsin, playing alongside fellow Ducks prospect Jake Gardiner. In a situation similar to that of Jimmy Vesey, Schultz went unsigned by Anaheim, and become an unrestricted free agent in 2012. He met with several teams, who saw him as an elite prospect, and chose the Oilers after a meeting with former Oilers star Wayne Gretzky.

Free Agent Profile: Luke Schenn

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Free agent defenseman Luke Schenn came into the NHL with plenty of expectations, having been drafted with the fifth overall pick in 2008 by the Maple Leafs, winning a gold medal at the World Junior championship, and cracking Toronto’s lineup at 18 years old. Since then, Schenn’s value has diminished, and he’s quickly becoming a veteran journeyman, rather than a budding star.

Initially viewed as a young bright spot on a bad Leafs team, Schenn played 70 games at over 21 minutes a night. The longer Schenn played in Toronto, the more he seemed to be questioned. He was still seen to have the potential to become a high-end NHL defenceman in 2011, when he was signed to a five year, $18MM contract. After signing, Schenn continued to struggle, and was subject of trade rumors all season, until he was dealt to the Philadelphia Flyers at the draft for left winger James van Riemsdyk.

There have been flashes along the way, and Schenn has had success playing with more skilled defense partners, such as Kimmo Timonen, or Michael Del Zotto. Like in Toronto with his draft position, Schenn faced expectations in Philadelphia based on his salary and what was given up to acquire him, and never fully lived up to them. In January, he was dealt to the Los Angeles Kings along with Vincent Lecavalier for Jordan Weal and a third round pick.

Potential Suitors

While he’s unlikely to be called a top-four defenseman, Schenn has value. He’s an experienced and capable player, and plays the right-handed. Teams looking to balance their defense pairings will take a long look at him. The Boston Bruins, for one, only have two right-handed defensemen signed to NHL contracts, and have the sort of puck-skilled left-hand shots that Schenn has seen success with, including former teammate John-Michael Liles. The Edmonton Oilers have also been speculated to be looking for a right-hand shot.

Expected Contract

Placing Schenn 30th on our NHL free agent rankings, we had projected he would receive a three-year, $8.25MM contract. Given how much of the cap space throughout the league has already been spent, it’s hard to imagine him signing for much more than $1MM for one year in an effort to rebuild his value, or provide depth to a contending team. Teams looking for size and balance may be willing to pay more, but one would have to think that if they were, it would be done by now.

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